Brothers of a country
by bladesniper
Summary: This is a story of the comradeship of men during world war 2. the story of the strength of a platoon of men who are in the middle of the worst conflict in the world. It has a combination of Spanish and Italian and German because of the realism
1. Chapter 1

Brothers of a Country

Brothers of a Country

Chap. 1: prologue

There is a black screen, suddenly a voice is heard in the distant, and finally it gets loud enough to hear it.

"How'd it come to this? I can't believe I caused half of my platoon to be killed. Why… why… WHY DID THEY DIE AND NOT ME? Why?"

Color finally starts to appear and a noise of a train appears. The scene is the Southside of the Bronx, New York. It focuses on a young man of probably 17 years of age. He is seen running down the street with a smile.

"Hey Piero, come stai il mio ragazzo?" Askes an Italian store clerk.

"Io sono buone. Come stai facendo e Alessandra?" The young man replies.

"Stiamo facendo bene. Dillo a tua madre ho detto ciao." The man answers.

"I will Mr. Trampiona." The man yells waving his hand. He opens his front door. "Hey mom I'm home." Piero yells entering the kitchen.

"Hey hijo, how are you?" Piero's mother says in a Spanish accent. Piero is smiling with a big grin. "Que paso?" Piero's mother asks.

"I enlisted into the army." He replies with some excitement.

"Cosa!" she asks shocked, "Why Piero, why did you that?"

"Because, everyone else's sons are, I figured I should do my part to. Besides, I'm already 17. All I need is your signature. Vi preghiamo di madre? Nonna lasciare padre quando aveva 17. Perché non posso?" Piero begs his mother.

"NO! I will not!" She answers. There's a silence, suddenly Piero asks "Would you want someone else's son to die or become disabled?" This leaves her stunned. Finally she agrees and signs. "Grazie madre, Grazie." Piero answers happily.

The screen fades and shows Piero with some other men at the train station.

"Now you take care of yourself Piero okay?" his mother asks worriedly

"Mama, it's me." Piero says assuringly. "Questo e cio che temo." She replies.

While thats is going on it shows to men a father and son talking. They appear to be of upper class.

"Now listen here Thomas, bring pride to the McClarence name son." The father says.

"Yes father." The son of 18 answers somewhat positively.

"God dammit Thomas have you no shame. You could have stayed and let some hoodlums son die while you could be co-owning my business. Now you have made me a disgrace amoung my colleagues." The father tells his son angrily.

"I'm sorry father, I will do my best." The boy responds.

"You'd better, or I will never talk to you again." His father responds. "Come Curtiss I have a meeting."

"Yes Mr. McClarence." The black male says.

Suddenly the train whistles and the conductor yells.

"ALL ABOARD!".


	2. Chapter 2

Brothers of a Country

Brothers of a Country

Chap.2: The struggle for friendship

The screen fades and shows a column of men dressed up in army fatigues. It shows Piero, the man Thomas, and some more men sweating and standing at attention. Suddenly a recruitment officer comes up to the column of men.

"Alright men, I've called you all here because you all have qualified to be a part of a new experiment that the Army is trying out. Now if you do not want to sign up, I will let you go back to your units." The recruitment officer says.

"Ah sir, what exactly is this experiment, anyways? And what's in it for us?" Piero asks.

"The Army is starting an airborne division." The officer responds.

"An airborne division, what the hell is that?" One man asks.

"Well, you get to jump out of airplanes with a parachute on your back and fight the enemy." The officer explains.

"Are you higher-ups retarded, making perfectly fine men jump out of airplanes and maybe fall to their deaths?" Thomas asks

"Well, we will pay everyone who volunteers an extra 50 dollars as hazardous jump pay." The officer says.

"Well shit, you didn't tell me that. I'll sign up." Piero volunteers.

"Well, shit, if that punk thinks he's leaving, than I am too." Another man says, soon all the men except Thomas signs up.

"Come on buddy, do it." A tall Polish immigrant taunts.

"Sorry men, but I will not take advice from and join such low-level peasants such as you." Thomas says. Piero walks up to him and right-hooks Thomas in the face. "Now listen here you bastard, this is a war that our country's involved in. We don't have time to be calling people names due to their financial situation."

Thomas finally shoves Piero off, "Fine, I shall volunteer. I just hope that it is worth it", he says.

"Good, now let's go already." Piero remarks.

"Alright then, I guess this means that you all will be getting to know each other a lot better, huh?" the recruitment officer says with a sigh.


	3. Chapter 3

Brothers of a country

Brothers of a country

Chap. 3: A place of discomfort and hell.

It shows a company of soldiers standing at attention. Suddenly a captain approaches and yells.

"Pvt. Manny Daniels!" the captain yells. He replied by the private with a "Present Sir!" This goes on for about 37 times, and with each time the same response. Finally he calls out "SSgt. Piero Gigglinio!" Except this time there is no response. The captain repeats with the call out. For a second there's no response, but finally Piero calls out while running.

"Shit, this dim-witted bastard is late again" Sgt. Thomas Dawson mutters under his breath.

"SSgt. Piero Gigglinio, aren't you suppose to be in your line at 8 a.m. on the dot." The captain asks.

"Sorry Captain MacMillan, I got lost on the way here." Piero says worriedly.

"Well Sergeant, let's see if your whole platoon will remember their way to assembly after running, oh let's say, 4 laps around the **whole **camp. Then 3rd platoon may go on about their scheduled PT." Capt. MacMillan says repulsively to the whole of 3rd platoon.

"Aw, come on Captain. You never discipline 1st, 2nd, or 4th platoons like this when they do something like this." The platoon leader, who's a Lieutenant, objects.

"Well, Lt. Ducentir, that's because they already know the consequences." Captain MacMillan says scornfully.

The platoon, including Sgt. Piero, starts their run in full combat gear and with their weapons in their hands. Suddenly Thomas says angrily to Piero.

"Goddamit Piero, you had to fuck us up because you couldn't find your fucking way through camp when we walked through it hundreds of time." He says.

"Well Tom, it ain't easy to find your way when that son-of-a-bitch Captain MacMillan always changes the assembly area, and never tells us about it." Piero replies.

"He does have a point Sgt. Dawson." Lieutenant Ducentir says supportively.

"Hey Lt. Jake!" another sergeant yells.

"Yes Sgt. Frügg." Lt. Ducentir yells amusedly.

"Sir, I think Captain MacMillan, 1stLt. Destrik, and First Sgt. Clarentine hate our platoon sir." He says

"They don't hate us Kelvin, they just hate you." Lt. Ducentir says jokingly. Just as he suggests everyone, including Frügg, start to laugh.

"This place is place of hell and discomfort." Piero says.

"No, Piero, that's just the army bitch-slapping you." Lt. Ducentir says with some humor. Again the whole platoon starts to laugh.

"Still Sarge you're always late to assembly." A guy in Piero's squad says.

"Well Juarez, maybe it's because I'm the 17 year old son of an Italian immigrant and a Puerto Rican woman." Piero explains, "So, I can't read English. Shit, I didn't get a chance to fuckin' finish grammar school before I volunteered for dis damn war."

"Well shit, I'm the son of 2 Salvadorians, and I speak perfect English Sarge." Juarez responds.

"Well I only know 3 repeat 3 wonderful languages, while you only know 2, you dumb shit." Piero says arrogantly.

"Look you two, just shut up." Lt. Ducentir says, "Besides this is the United States Army, we speak one language, and that's English. You foreigners don't understand that do you."

"No sir nosotros no conocemos nada en ingles." Piero and Juarez say in Spanish.

"Then go back." Lt. Ducentir says with humor again.

After about 5 minutes of the platoon laughing, Piero says to Thomas.

"Man, I'm going to enjoy this war."

"You're telling me buddy." Thomas says assuringly.


	4. Chapter 4

Brothers of a country

Brothers of a country

Chap. 4: North Africa; the place of thieves, prostitutes, and heat

July 7th, 1943

It shows a C-47 fly by, suddenly it shows the inside were a stick of paratroopers are sitting down. Almost immediately a red light flickers on.

"Red Light! GET READY!" Sgt. Piero Gigglinio. At his command his whole shows their static hooks.

"STAND UP!" He says, with this everyone stands up, "HOOK UP!"

Everyone hooks their static hook to the static line above them. After this he yells "EQUIPMENT CHECK!" Everyone checks the equipment of the man in front of him. Piero then shouts "SOUND OFF FOR EQUIPMENT CHECK!" The last man in the stick yells out "15 OKAY!" this continues until the man in position 1 says okay. With that the green light comes on and the men run out of the plane and their parachutes blossom up. All up and down there is the noise of men cheering and whooping.

"YEAH BABY! WE'RE AIRBORNE!" Cpl. Juarez yells

"HELL YEAH BITCH!" a Pfc. Courtlier yells to.

The whole stick lands on an X that's in the middle of a target. They all assemble up and start to head to the barracks when Piero calls them over.

"That was one helluva jump huh guys." Piero asks breathlessly.

"That was the most rush I have ever felt Sarge." A private says ecstatically.

"Good to know that Pvt. Hendersen." Piero says wonderfully, "Alright, head to your bunks, get cleaned up and changed. We're headed to Algiers for a weekend pass."

"YES SIR!" Piero's squad roars. Piero starts walking to his bunk when Lt. Ducentir runs over to him.

"Hey Piero get your squad ready, we're on lock-down." Lt. Ducentir says excitedly.

"What do you mean we're on lock-down?" Piero asks curiously.

"I want all of the NCOs at my office immediately." Lt. Ducentir says authoritatively. Within 30 minutes all of the squad leaders and the platoon sergeant are gathered in a briefing room with map of Sicily on the board.

"This is Operation Husky, the Allies first major amphibious landing. Here's the plan, on the night of July 9th, the 505th PIR will drop here north of the town of Niscemi, 1st battalion 504th PIR, that's us, will drop north and east of the town of Gela. During the morning of July 10th, the 1st Infantry Division will land on the beaches directly in front of Gela; we're linking up with them. Meanwhile, the 45th will land here at the shores of Scoglitti, and the 3rd and 2nd Armored division will land here at Licata. Now Gen. Patton has the rest of the 504th on lock-down, but they're going about 4-5 days after us. Men, this will be the first time that an actual _**Airborne division **_will be used to help kick the shit out of Nazis Germany and Fascist Italy. I've trained with you men since '42. I have the utmost respect and expectations of you men. Don't let me down. NOW LET'S GO KICK SOME AXIS ASS!" Lt. Ducentir says to the 3 squads, with that they all cheer and yell.

Suddenly the company's First Sergeant and X.O. walk in. Immediately the platoon stops and stands at attention, and the company X.O.: 1stLt. Destrik walks up to Lt. Ducentir.

"You know 2ndLt. Ducentir, I found some rather inappropriate photos of a woman in your platoon's barracks. Technical Sergeant Milestoune, can you come up for a minute." Lt. Destrik says.

"Yes sir?" Milestoune asks nervously.

"Who is this?" Lt. Destrik asks in return evilly.

"That's my girl back home s-s-sss-sir." Milestoune says stuttering.

"Well, she won't be any more." Destrik says holding a lighter next to the pictures until they catch fire.

"NO!" Milestoune says with the company First Sergeant holding him back. Unfortunately the pictures fall to the ground, nothing more than charred ashes. Milestoune falls to his knees and starts to cry.

"THE CAPTAINS ORDER THAT ANY OTHER DISORDERLY OR INAPPROPIATE MATERIEL'S BE CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED!" Lt. Destrik yells angrily, and walks out the First Sergeant.

"You alright Craig?" Piero asks.

"She gave them to me so that I wouldn't forget about her." Sgt. Milestoune says grievingly.

"Come on man, let's go get ready." Thomas says pityingly.

"You all heard the Sergeant, get ready." Cpl. Juarez orders.

The men of 3rd platoon are shown getting their gear on and ready for the jump. Piero is getting some mk.4 grenades into his mussette bag when a private in his squad walks up to him.

"Hey sarge, I have a favor to ask you." The private says.

"What is it McAlester?" Piero asks looking up and seeing a ring being shown to him.

"If anything should happen to me, please make sure that my girl gets this." McAlester says sobbing. Piero gets up and looks McAlester dead in the eyes. The rest of the squad walk up and immediately know what is going on.

"Terrence, don't joke with shit like dat?" Piero says with his Italian accent starting to come out, "Shit like dat ain't funny. You're going to be just fine."

"But sarge, I mean she picked them out and all." McAlester says worriedly.

"Hey, ain't nothing going to happen, I promise." Piero says with his full Italian and Spanish accent finally coming out, "Now go get ready."

McAlester puts the ring back on his finger and walks away. Hendersen walks up to him and assures him he will be okay, after that he walks to Piero.

"I pity the guy, I'm left my girl to, back in L.A." Hendersen says.

"I didn't get a chance to tell the girl I like back in New York how I felt about her, but that's war." Piero says getting up and walking over to his barracks and getting a letter from out of his trunk. "I'm going to go to the post to ship this out to me moms."

The letter reads…

"Dear mom,

How are you? I'm fine; we've been shipped to a place called Kariouan, Morocco. That's somewhere in North Africa. This place is hell, nothing more than desert with dead heat during the day and freezing cold during the night. The cities are horrible, always filled with merchants, prostitutes, thieves and grave robbers. How's Tommy? How are his grades? And how is my famous little sister Elizabetha? Tell them I said hi. Also tell Mr. Trampiona and Alessandra I said hi to. Well, I've got to go. See ya."


	5. Chapter 5

Brothers of a country

Chap. 5: Miss dropped, and alone

July 9th, 1943, over the Mediterranean Sea.

A roaring flight of C-47s is seen flying. The waves below them are raging spouting seawater as high as 29 feet in the air. It shows the inside of C-47 IS430-T, inside Piero and his squad of paratroopers is sitting in the dark, damp fuselage of their transport. Some are smoking, most of them are praying.

"Hey Danny, you got a piece of gum?" Pvt. Hendersen asks.

"Yeah!" Pfc. Danny Miller says handing Hendersen a piece of gum.

Suddenly, there is a huge burst of Anti-Aircraft fire that hits the armada as they cross into Sicily. Then everyone in the plane starts to shout.

"JESUS CHRIST!" shouts a Cpl. Cranovisk.

"GET US OUTTA HERE ALREADY!" Juarez yells to Piero.

Immediately a red light turns on. Everyone stands up and gets ready. They all check their equipment and count down, when a burst of flak hits the side of their plane.

"AH SHIT!" shouts another private.

"YOU OKAY MCKENZIE?" Courtlier asks.

"Yeah!" McKenzie yells back. McAlester looks down and sees blood on his jump-pants.

"Hey, you're bleeding McAlester. You okay?" a Pfc. Townes asks.

"Yeah, I can fight." McAlester responds looking at Hendersen who is front of him and not moving, "Hendersen, how are you? You hit anywhere?"

Hendersen doesn't answer, he just stays in his current position.

"HEY HENDERSEN ANSWER ME! HENDERSEN!" McAlester says pulling Hendersen only to discover that Hendersen is dead.

"Holy shit! SARGE! They got Hendersen, he-he's dead!" McAlester says

"Unhook him and set him down!" Piero says just as the green light goes on. Everyone runs out the door. Piero is the last one out of the plane, he stops and looks back and sees Hendersen corpse lying on the floor, he then turns and jumps out. His canopy opens and he is flung around, as he floats down he sees a 4-barrelled AA gun firing up at the planes above him. He hits the ground with a thud and rolls. After about a minute he is out of his parachute and harness and walking around with his m1a1 carbine.

"Shit, where is everybody? Better yet, where the fuck am I at?" He whispers to himself. While his asking himself he hears a rustling in the vineyard behind him. "Who's there?"

"Are you a yank?" says a voice with a British accent.

"Yeah, are you a Brit?" Piero asks in return.

"God bless the Queen, it's good to hear from some sort of friendly voice." The British paratrooper says walking out of the grapevine, "Lance Corporal William Devington."

"Staff Sergeant Piero Gigglinio, what unit you with buddy?" Piero whispers.

"4th platoon, 3rd company of the 1st Airlanding Brigade. You lad?" Devington asks surprised.

"3rd platoon, Baker Company, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. What the hell are you doing here, I thought your objective was Syracuse?" Piero responds.

"It is, and I thought that your objective was that bloody town of Gela? Where the hell are we lad?" the British paratrooper asks.

"I don't know but we shouldn't stay here. We have to find a road, a town, something so I could go to find a bearing." Piero says looking around and starting to walk towards the sound of firefights.

"Wait yank, don't leave me 'ere by my bloody lonesome." . Devington says grabbing his Sten sub-machine gun and running to catch up to Piero.

After about 15 minutes of walking towards firefights only to find that they are abandoned, Piero and Devington are walking down a road. Finally Devington ask Piero.

"Hey Sergeant, how old are you?" Devington asks.

"I'm only 19, why?" Piero responds being watchful of his surroundings.

"Just want to know, I find it funny." Devington says chuckling.

"What do you find funny Corporal?" Piero asks looking at him, while checking up on his m1a1 carbine.

"How is a 19 year old Sergeant is commanding a 25 year old Corporal?" Devington asks. Piero starts to chuckle just as soon as a Italian machine gun starts to fire on them.

"JESUS CHRIST! Machine Gun! Devington cover me." Piero says trying to get up with Devington firing his Sten. Unfortunately the Italian MG keeps Piero and Devington pinned until suddenly a grenade blast disables the gun and kills its operators. Piero and Devington look up and see some paratroopers running down the hill behind the MG and yell out to them.

"American or British?" shouts one of the paratroopers in a Kentucky accent.

"I'm American, although I have a British soldier next to me." Piero yells back. The man along with 4 other American soldiers walk from behind the hill and greet the 2 lost men.

"Lt. Daniel Morrison, 1st platoon, Able Company 505th PIR." The Lieutenant introduces, "This here is Pvt. McClintock, Sgt. Reyes, Cpl. Taunus, and TSgt. Pelizzinio."

"SSgt. Piero Gigglinio, 3rd platoon, Baker Company, 504th PIR. This here is . William Devington." Piero says looking at Sgt. Reyes, "You, Reyes, aren't you from Dog Company 504th PIR?"

"Yes sir, my CO is Capt. Maxell, don't tell me yours is Capt. MacMillan?" The sergeant replies. Piero answers with a nod. Finally, after 15 minutes of finding out their bearing, the small makeshift squad starts to head toward the town of Gela. While they are on their to Gela they run into one member from Piero's company and another member from Pelizzinio platoon. By the time they reach Gela it is daylight and the 1st Infantry Division is already set up inside the town and is starting to move out. Piero, Reyes, Devington and 3 other Privates that joined the squad earlier on split up with the rest of the men.

"Take good care of yourself you 6." Lt. Morrison says shaking each of the men's hands.

"Good luck to you to Lieutenant." Piero and Reyes yell as they start to find their unit. Within 30 minutes the 6 men leave Gela and head for Piano Lupo, the 504th's next objective. Unfortunately, before they can leave Gela, Devington must leave to link up with his unit.

"Well chap, I guess this goodbye?" Devington says looking in the direction he must go.

"Yeah, take good care of yourself Will." Piero says shaking Devington's hand.

"I will, you just make sure you take of your bloody self." Devington says walking away. Suddenly he turns and yells, "When we get out of this mess, I'll buy you and your chaps some rum or something."

"Fine with me, I'll pay the tab." Piero says chuckling


	6. Chapter 6

Brothers of a country

Chap.6: holding the high ground

"INCOMING!" a private from 3rd platoon's 2nd squad yells out. A few seconds later an artillery shell blows up next to 3 soldiers running for cover.

"SHIT! TAKE COVER MILLER!" Juarez yells ducking into his foxhole. Suddenly Piero jumps into the foxhole working on his m1a1 carbine.

"MADRE STRONZO! My fucking gun is jammed. Shit." He says taking apart his carbine and fixing it. Just then Lt. Ducentir runs up when the artillery fire stops.

"Hold the line, Italian infantry inbound." Jake says running down the line.

"Alright squad, you heard the man. Get ready," Piero says running to his squads foxholes, " Courtlier, McAlester get your .30 cal. on point get ready." Suddenly there is a gunshot and Piero falls.

"SHIT THEY GOT SARGE!" Townes yells, "Get Empzonni up front. We need a medic.

A minute later, the platoon's medic, Cpl. Tom Empzonni runs up starts patching up Piero; who has a bullet wound to the chest.

"Hang in there Gigglinio." Empzonni yells to Piero, who nods in agreement. "Okay, we need to get him outta 'ere" Empzonni says lifting Piero up just as the Italians start to attack with much confusion.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Lt. Ducentir yells. Fortunately the Italians start to fall back. Yet, just as soon as that happens German tanks can be seen.

"HOLY SHIT! TIGER TANKS!" Dawson yells terrified.

"Where the fuck did those god-damn tanks come from?" Sgt. Milestoune asks to his foxhole buddy. It shows Dawson looking to his left to see Piero's machine gun team, Courtlier and McAlester, take a direct hit from a tank shell.

"Holy shit, Courtlier and McAlester just got one." Dawson's fire team leader Pfc. Arnolds yells out.

"We got to fall back, we can't take on these damn tanks." Milestoune says looking over to Ducentir. Ducentir looks around and sees 2 more men from Dawson's squad get hit and lie on the ground wounded, clutching their wounds in agony.

"We have to hold the line. At all costs!" Ducentir yells grabbing his BAR and starting to fire at the Italian troops now attacking with the German tanks. Suddenly a man runs over into Ducentir's foxhole and looks to see all of these paratroopers looking at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Juarez asks taking cover.

"Pvt. Gordon, 1st Infantry Division, Navy Liasion officer. I'm here to calling in artillery for you guys." The soldier says panting

"Well hell, call in artillery now you son of a bitch or we're all dead." Milestoune's fire team leader, Cpl. Harrington yells out.

"Right, okay. USS Saratoga, this is Loose Leaf, I need a fire mission. Range: 500, elevation: 45, coordinates: Phase line Baker 1-3-0-7-9- 5. Enemy tanks and infantry in the open, fire for effect over." Gordon calls in.

"Roger Loose Leaf, fire mission commencing. Adjust if needed." Says a radio operator on the USS Saratoga. Suddenly 5-inch shells fly over head and start landing in the middle of the Axis column. Bodies and parts of tanks are seen flying through the air all over the place. The paratroopers are staring at the immense firepower of the Navy's ships. The Italians and what's left of the German tanks is seen fleeing the battlefield and headed for new positions.

"YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT YOU KRAUT BASTARDS! RUN!" Cpl. Juarez yells along with other cheers from the men.

5 days later the 82nd Airborne Division is pulled back from the lines. It shows 3rd platoon walking down to a Sicilian airfield. They are battle weary, dirty, and tired. Just as soon as they reach the field, Piero is seen standing in front of them with a grin.

"Look at you dirty, hungry bastards. Get a shower and I'll buy you a drink." Piero shouts to the men of 3rd platoon, "But first I want to my squad to gather up on me."

What's left of 2nd squad gathers around on him. He silently counts the number of heads.

"Where's Courtlier, McAlester and Cranovisk?" He asks

"Piero, Coutlier and McAlester's foxhole took a Tiger tank shell at Piano Lupo, and Cranovisk got wounded 2 days ago on a patrol." Juarez says staring at the ground. Piero does the same, then walks away and walks in circles for about 2 minutes. Suddenly Piero stops and says, "Now when I get that drink for all of you, we drink for Matt and Terrence, and we drink to make sure that Igor recovers and either joins us again or goes home."

"Piero, I'm going to write the AAR for regiment." Lt. Ducentir says.

Ducentir's After Action Report:

**This is the After Action Report for Operation Husky: July 9th- July17th, 1944. We took one casualty before our whole platoon could drop. Pvt. Michael Hendersen took a piece of flak to the right side of his body and died while hooking up to the static line. We dropped scattered all around the southern coastal region around Gela and Niscemi. Our platoon linked up at Gela on D-Day and moved to our next line of objectives. Reached Piano Lupo under stiff resistance and fought our way to position up on the high grounds. Took a counter-attack from the Italian Livorno Division and the elite Hermann Goering Division. My platoon took the most casualities of the company due to the counter-attack. My platoon's 2nd squad under SSgt. Piero Gigglinio lost 2 men and was also wounded by a Italian sniper's bullet. 1st squad had 2 wounded men, while 3rd squad lost no men. I am putting Pfc. Harold McLinson of 3rd squad up for accomadation for taking out a German tank. The German Mk. 4 had our platoon pinned, finally McLinson ran out out of his foxhole into open ground with his bazooka and knocked out the tank's main turret and co-axial machine gun.**

**2nd Lieutenant Jake Ducentir,**

**Commanding Officer, 3rd platoon, B-Company,**

**1st Battalion, 504th PIR, of the 82nd Airborne Division.**


	7. Chapter 7

Brothers of a country

Chap. 7: Salerno; the near failure

It shows 3rd platoon forming up and starting to board a flight of C-47 Dakota's.

"Hurry up and load up, the men of 5th Army are getting killed. Every second you bastards spend getting ready is one more man getting killed." Piero yells at the top of his voice. His squad is just getting the last man on when Piero jumps up and grabs the door and thrusts himself in. A second later the C-47 starts off. He gets to his seat, the first closest to the jump door.

Over the roar of the engines and jingling of equipment, one can hear Piero talking to Dawson;

"It's not even that," Piero says, "I've been to Italy, I have family in and around Rome. It's a hell of place, nothin' but mountains until you're at least 50 miles away."

"He's right, I to have seen southern Italy, I think we might get bogged down over there." Dawson agrees.

"HEY SARGE! HOW DA HELL WILL WE KNOW WE ARE OVER THE DZ?" a new private in Piero's squad, a Pvt. John Hatkins, asks.

"SUPPOSEDLY, 5TH ARMY IS GOING TO LIGHT UP A SHITLOAD OF JERRY CANS ON THE DZ TO LET US KNOW TO JUMP THERE!" Piero responds.

After about 25 minutes of waiting the red light turns on. The paratroopers all stand up and get ready. While doing that Miller tells Hatkins something, suddenly Hatkins turns toward the door looking terrified.

"What'd he say to you?" Juarez asks turning around to him.

"He said that the guy who was in this same position on Husky bought the farm before he could even jump." Hatkins responds

"He's right! But don't worry 'bout it." Juarez assures him.

"There's supposed to be fuel barrels burning around the beach where we'll drop!" Piero yells as an

AA shell burst right in next to the door with him standing in it. The shell knocks out the jump light.

"SHIT, I TAKE IT WE'RE FUCKED NOW!" Hatkins says.

"NO I SEE THE BARRELS JUST UP AHEAD!" Piero yells, "JUMP! GO! GO! GO!" He yells as the men of his squad run out of the plane. As he jumps out Flak burst right in front of him. It tears holes through his main parachute, but after that he pulls the ripcord of his reserve chute. He lands just outside the ring of burning barrels and takes off his parachute.

"Piero, you okay?" Dawson asks just as Juarez runs up.

"Yeah, I'm…Agh!" Piero says falling on one knee while trying to get up. He feels around his knee to feel a big chunk missing.

"Not again damn it." Juarez says running over with Empzonni and a couple of other medics who have to carry Piero off to an aid station in a LST.

"Alright 2nd squad, form up on me!" Juarez yells as the rest of the squad meets up. "Alright, Piero's out for a while. So…"

"We know you're in charge." Miller says. "So what's the plan?"

"Hey Juarez." a Corporal asks.

"Yes Harrington." Juarez responds tiredly.

"Look at Piero, he's coming back." Jacob Harrington says pointing to disgruntled and wobbling Piero, who has Empzonni running after him.

"Dammit Piero, get back here, you can't walk on that leg." The nervous medic says as Piero kneels next to Juarez.

"I'm back, it's nothing okay," Piero says grunting from time to time. "As you heard from Jose, we got to hold the line. I ain't missing this one like Sicily."

"Let's go! Ducentir, get you men organized NOW!!!" Capt. MacMillan says angrily

"Shit, come on 3rd platoon let's go! MOVE OUT!" Jake says walking down the road behind 1st platoon.

Baker Company set up positions in a little valley just south of Paestum, with 3rd platoon on its far right flank, 2nd platoon on the left flank, 4th in the center and 1st platoon in reserve. Right next to Baker Company's position lays its sister company Charlie. 2 hours later it Piero, Cranovisk, Christiansen, and Chang are out on patrol.

"Hey Piero, do you know where we're at?" Pvt. Chang asks looking around nervously with his M1 Garand.

"Yeah, we're right in front of Charlie Company. I'm surprised that we haven't come across any Kraut resistance yet." Piero says with his Carbine ready. Suddenly Cranovisk, who is on point, stops puts his fist up to signal a halt. Piero runs up to him and asks what is wrong.

"You hear that?" Cranovisk whispers and turns to see a figure standing up.

"WHO ARE YOU?" The figure asks.

"Baker Company, 504th." Piero responds, the figure walks up and responds that they're from Charlie Company.

"What the hell are you doing in our lines?" The nervous corporal asks with his own patrol behind him, "We could hear you a mile away."

"Sorry, we got lost. Is it safe to head back?" Piero says.

"Yeah there's no Fritz in our front of us." The corporal says walking back to his lines. Piero and the rest head back to the company HQ and reports to Capt. MacMillan that they haven't encountered any resistance.

The next day, 2nd Battalion, 504th start to move out towards its next objective the defensive hill called Hill 424* on which the town that would cost Baker company its first real casualties sits upon, the town of Alta Villa.

*Hill 424 and others of the Italian, and Northwestern Campaign bore their distinctions from military planners and strategists for the height in meters above sea level. During the rest of the war, only one other hill would be remembered as much, if not more than Hill 424 in the ETO was Hill 400 in the German town of Berstein.


End file.
